Such a good idea! It was Rhiannon who chose to have her daughter announce their wedding to friends and family. Very clever, and so making this was a lot of fun. Rhiannon asked I include her daughter Sadie’s little blanket bunny, RaRa, but with a real bunny body. Sadie’s nickname is Sadie Bug, so I included the lady bugs.

I used 2 photos to create Sadie. I liked an image with her arms up, so I drew her arms separately. I drew the dress from another photo, where she was also wearing gumboots. SO, I imagined her toes. But I have a cute daughter too, so that was pretty easy to make up, ha ha! So inspiring. Now I want to draw some pictures of my own kids amongst flora and fauna.

My brother, my hero, Batman. My cousin Shekinah in a clown costume my mom made, and we all wore at Hallowe’en at least once. Not sure who the child on the right is, in the foreground, but notice their little friend I added… a little Robin, a sidekick and a favourite bird so common on the lawn in the spring here.

I get a warm fuzzy feeling for those old linoleum floors, the games we got along with the candy, and the clutter and cheer of this wicked holiday. Even as an adult, dressing up allows a certain silliness and play which is frowned upon in most of our everyday life.

I hope I can revive the old sewing machine to make a few costumes for Frances, or maybe I can just talk Grandma into doing it, ha!

Chris Purdy in the background, my mom in the foreground in blue with a pixie cut. I have always loved this photo of the girls getting their party-on. The slide is overexposed and a bit blurry, the colours are so fun and appealing. Happy to have finally painted it.

There are a few slides from this night, at least the girls are wearing the same dresses. I want very much to paint the image of left and center girls looking at slides on the couch. Between them is a guy with a stubby beer between his legs. I have painted it before and will paint it again. This time on wood not canvas.

Woot Woot!! Party on!! I am going to Ferris’ tonight to celebrate with a few friends. I have now posted all the new ones so far.

John Frahill lived up on a tower in Port Alberni for a number of days to raise money for a cause… I need more details, but he took this image from the tower Dad tells me.

I have painted this before on canvas. There are no rules, I can paint things twice, right? Anyways, this time it’s on wood and I used some different colours. Adam thought I needed to paint this again. It’s all his fault.

Originally I painted this without the heads, very small cause I was in a hurry and it was going to sell for only $20 at a MOCL fundraiser. Awesome Gord bought it 15 minutes before the event. I had always planned to paint this with the heads, larger, and finally found the time and motivation. Here it is!! Also, I was SO THRILLED to be able to use the Fleur de Lis wallpaper I found at the SOS (second hand store). And I am not afraid to use it again. This is my mom and friend John. Dad is the photographer (from a slide).

Prices are going up. I think they were on the low side before, and Dave from Ferris’, my husband and mother-in-law, and a few others, encouraged me to put higher prices on them.

Okay, so prices are lowered again. I will try higher prices again maybe with the next batch, but for now I am putting them on sale, ha! It’s a fine balance between sales and no sales, money and no money.

On the plus side, if you can’t afford an original, Adam can make prints of them! So they’re still accessible. Another reason the prices (were) up is that I am trying to make a living, I no longer have a part time job. I am at home with Frances and my time is worth a lot more because of her. Well that’s how I feel about it anyways.

Ok, Gord and Sarah might be my biggest fans. They called dibs on this painting before I even painted it.

I made a little page on Facebook asking for some of my buddies to post pictures of us partying that would make good paintings. Mara posted this photo her husband Andreas took, of our friend Joe… our handsome, musically multitalented, down to earth, daring, and ‘hot’ I might add, friend. Joe is cherished by all of us very much. Last year at Song Farm, his band “the Tuesdays” wrote a song about him. He is pretty kind and good hearted, always encourages us to play music even when some of our musical talents are nonexistent, eh hem. Of course everyone thought I should paint this picture of him, including myself. So glad I did. And can’t wait to paint more from the can of worms I opened. SOOOOO many great photos I must paint. I can hardly wait.

YAY!! A new venue for my art! Dave at Ferris’ first found me and my art at Rebel Rebel, (now “Reunion”), and I am so grateful for the exposure and support I have had over the years from Claudia and Erin there. At the time, everything I had art wise was hanging in their store, so I had nothing to show for Dave, and let the offer slide. 3 or 4 years later, here we are… Adam printed big copies of my paintings and hung them in his store, which moved right across the street from Ferris’. Dave asked again if I wanted show my work, and BINGO, perfect timing. Great motivation to make some new art, aside from the commissions I’ve been doing. It’s wonderful to stretch paint some things I have been wanting to get too, revisiting the old slides, and finally starting to paint some modern stuff as well. I feel I am just getting started.

What an infectious smile!? Christine’s grandma is pictured here relaxing afloat a canoe. When she commissioned this piece, Christine gave me free reign to add colour if I wanted too. I contemplated making the shirt red, but opted out in the end as you can see. I think black and white translates well on wood, and I enjoy the change.

This may have been the hardest picture to paint as of yet. My goodness. I scratched out and repainted my sweet friend Miranda’s little child face. She commissioned this as a gift for her Dad, and I wanted terribly to capture her perfectly. I don’t think I did in the end. I reworked it some more since this photo I took of it. *Sigh*

I did do the best I could, and I am very happy with the painting overall. It was just so hard to paint the girls faces accurately, because of the nature of the wood grain and blurriness of the image.

Miranda graciously accepted the finished product and said her Dad loved it.

Summer is the season for wedding portraits! Again, I was able to paint this one outside in the sun which is so appropriate for the subject, got me right in the groove. This image is quite large, and I had the added challenge of combining two photos. The little boy substituted from a similar photo. We decided to use the two photos to get the best angles and expressions together.

I had some disproportion from the projector and had a really hard time getting things right. Thank goodness for Adam. I call him in when I can’t seem to find the problem and his perspective saves the day. I got it done, took longer than I thought it would, but I am happy with the results.

Recently, I received an email from the parents who commissioned this for their daughter and son in law. It went over fabulously. Yay!! Got a nice picture of them with it too.

I was loving life when I was given this commission. It was gorgeous weather outside, I had my easle set up on the deck, baby monitor on hand and was just adoring these faces! They were glowing, and I guess just being so present and focussed, painting these smiling happy, beautiful people… I became infused, filled with their happiness.

I have to add, painting his beard was awesome. Something Van Gogh about it.

Last year I had this sweet commission from Angela. Her daughter had seen my art at the moss street paint in, and put me on her wish list! So nice someone so young would request art for Christmas!

It was a tricky one to paint, because of the profile and angle of her face. Originally, I hadn’t painted in the background and took my best guess on her facial features. Fortunately, Angela was brave enough to suggest the background be painted in, and provided me with a school photo of her daughter. I went back to work on the eve of Christmas eve, and finished it up. I think we were both much happier. Communication is always better than none!

I am finally posting this (almost a year later), as I just figured out how to get photos stored on my camera’s memory (not on the card). Oh ya, just call me if you need some tech support! Ha, or maybe not.

Again, Shannon knows what she wants! Fantastic, and I liked her directions. I still favour my first drawing though, where their Foxy selves were nude in the canoe. I guess it was a bit too risqué for a wedding thanks ;) Cut offs are cute. Nice touch.

This is also in a postcard format for easy posting. Thank you guys, for trusting me with the creation of your wedding cards! I wish them happiness forever after.

This was a fun little project, off my beaten path. Shannon saw our wedding invite through a mutual friend, and so had me design hers. I liked how she knew what she wanted, from subject to background details. I did up a few different drawings and we conversed back and forth through email. After I nailed the drawing, I scanned and coloured it in Photoshop. It was a postcard size, details printed on the backside.

It was a great experience, and I’d do it again! In fact, I did soon after. She had me design her Thank You postcards as next…

Here are our Thank You cards we sent out after our wedding. Really, without the TONNES of help our friends and family put in, the day would have been major blando. Instead, we had such a beautiful, fantastic, colourful event, with good food, drink, dancing and everything. Couldn’t have been better.

Our invite inspired by the Edward Lear poem, The Owl & the Pussycat, which clearly suits us. We got wise old Adam playing guitar, the ocean, catty old me, a pig with a ring in its nose, dancing in the moonlight, and that’s right, a turkey. Jasmin recited it and Skye played the flute at Song Farm, (too much pressure at the wedding I think). I cried none the less. So sweet!!

The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
“O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are, you are, you are,
What a beautiful Pussy you are.”
Pussy said to the Owl “You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing.
O let us be married, too long we have tarried;
But what shall we do for a ring?”
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows,
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose, his nose, his nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
“Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling your ring?”
Said the Piggy, “I will”
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon.
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand.
They danced by the light of the moon, the moon, the moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.